FEATURE:
Life on the Screen
Kate Bush: The Satirists, Comedy Connections and Acting Opportunities
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MAYBE it is a badge of honour…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
but you do not really have satirists now who take off musicians. Those that parody or mimic them. It was more common decades ago. Of course, Kate Bush being so distinct and unusual, she was instantly met with a combination of critical and fan affection and pot shots from satirists. She had a good sense of humour about it, however, it would have also been a little galling now being seen as serious. I have raised this before. How Kate Bush was subjected to spoofing. Especially early in her career. I think that she was seen as an easy target. Someone who was a bit cosmic and out-there. This middle-class doctor’s daughter, many did not think she was a serious musician. I think a lot of people didn’t understand her. As such, parodies from the likes of Faith Brown and Pamela Stephenson were probably seen a reflection of a view a certain sector had of Kate Bush. That her music was a little ridiculous. However, the satirists maybe were paying tribute in their own way. At least her music was being talked about in a way! Bush’s sense of humour runs through all of this. She is a big comedy fan so wouldn’t have minded too much that people were giving her songs and music a comedic spin. I often wonder too whether Kate Bush was offered many comedy roles early in her career. No shock that she did get offered parts in film and T.V. She was approached to appear in the film Castaway, alongside Oliver Reed. The Nicolas Roeg film instead starred Amanda Donohue. Bush did contribute a song to that film, Be Kind to My Mistakes. Bush was involved in comedy early in her career. On 5th March 1979, Bush appeared for the second time on The Kenny Everett Video Show. She was very much game and was very much in on the joke. The video for Wow was played. A year previous, she appeared on the show and featured in a silly and funny question and answer exchange with Everett. Just before the video for The Man with the Child in His Eyes was shown. It could have been an experience where she was mocked or the butt of the joke, though Bush was very much on an equal footing. Someone who was taken seriously.
It is curious seeing these screen and comedy connections. Though Bush never appeared in a comedy film, she did write the classic song, This Woman’s Work (which appeared on The Sensual World in 1989). That film was 1988’s She’s Having a Baby. Kate Bush did appear in 1990’s Les Dogs for The Comic Strip Presents… It was Kate Bush’s acting debut. When asked about the role, she said that “Peter Richardson worked on the video [for The Sensual World] and it was a lot of fun, and we stayed in touch as friends. When he was working on The Comic Strip series, I got a script and he asked me if I’d play a part. I felt very honoured to be asked”. Even though Bush was often parodied or send up by satirists and comedians, as someone who loved comedy, it wouldn’t have deflated her too much. I wonder whether a career in comedy could have beckoned. She must have been offered all sorts during her career. Kate Bush was a big fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. However, she was not offered much comedy. Interestingly, she was offered a role in Wurzel Gummidge. That would have been in May 1981. Not long before she released the single, Sat in Your Lap (from 1982’s The Dreaming). With the role of The Wicked Witch in mind, she had to turn it down. It was unfortunately typecasting – the media thinking Bush was some sort of witch! -, and Bush was too busy making an album anyway. Thanks to Tom Doyle and his book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush for some useful biography and information. In a recent feature, I mentioned how Bush took part in the inaugural benefit shows for Comic Relief in 1986. A year later, she played at the 1987 Secret Policeman’s Third Ball.
It is interesting looking over all the comedic links and highlights from Kate Bush. In 1990, Bush wrote a song called Ken for The Comic Strip’s fourth series episode, GLC: The Carnage Continues. A couple of episodes later was when Bush appeared in Les Dogs. Bush tried to convince Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam to direct the video for Cloudbusting. Julian Doyle directed that incredible video for a standout Hounds of Love song. Lenny Henry appeared on the 1993 song, Why Should I Love You?, from The Red Shoes. Hugh Laurie and Dawn French appeared in the video for 1986’s Experiment IV. The late Terry Jones appeared in the artwork for 2011’s Director’s Cut. He was playing Professor Need. He was photographed in an old-fashioned train carriage, hooked up to his laptop via a wired device. Eric Idle introduced Kate Bush for her only appearance on SNL in 1978. The late Robbie Coltrane – who, as Tom Doyle notes, was one of the voices heard on Hounds of Love’s Waking the Witch – appeared in the video for Deeper Understanding from 2011’s Director’s Cut. In the video, Coltrane is catfished by a certain Noel Fielding. I shall come to him soon. For 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, Stephen Fry appeared on the title track, reciting fifty words for snow. Although Bush has not had many comedy connections since, her music did appear in the 2020 sci-fi comedy, Palm Springs (starring Andy Samberg). I will end by thinking about the satirist and early lampooning and Kate Bush’s love of and affection for comedy. There were a couple of occasions where comics took to the stage ‘as’ Kate Bush. Steve Coogan, as Alan Partridge, performed a medley of Kate Bush songs. Wow, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Them Heavy People, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Wuthering Heights, Don’t Give Up and Babooshka. That was for Comic Relief. Steve Coogan had a lot of fun doing it. Kate Bush actually came to see the last night of his show when it was performed in the West End. She joked to Coogan that it was “nice to hear all those songs again”. Bush did confide in Coogan that she was terrified of being out there as she had not done it for a long time. Maybe self-conscious of being out in public at a high-profile show.
It is interesting that things went full circle. If Kate Bush was seeing satirists like Faith Brown and Pamela Stephenson spoof her back when her career was in its infancy, it was a couple of male comics who were on the stage lovingly spoofing/performing her music. Noel Fielding famously performed Wuthering Heights in a red dress for Comic Relief in 2011. Looking quite the part, it was a more loving tribute to Kate Bush than perhaps the early satirising. Bush was asked by MOJO what it was like being taken the piss out of. Bush loved Fielding’s rendition of her debut single and was flattered. She didn’t mind because the song (Wuthering Heights) was taken the piss out of at the time, so the fact it has endured to be ripe for a new generation of comedic ammunition meant a lot to her. Someone who, in the 1970s and now, not taking offence to this sort of thing. Being in on the joke rather than being the butt of it. I keep thinking about that early satirising and whether it was completely loving. Whether it was seen as the thing that needed to be done. Bush not really taken seriously in the early days. I know there will be more comedic connections. Comic figures or shows using her music. The Bear included Hounds of Love’s The Morning Fog in an episode from Season 3 last year. Will Kate Bush be represented at Comic Relief again soon? Will we see a figure from the world of comedy included on a future album or in one of her videos? You can never rule it out, because this iconic artist loves comedy and has created this incredible network through her career. Those who have an association with her work. Be damned those early satirists! On The Red Shoes’ Moments of Pleasure, Bush sings “This sense of humour of mine isn’t funny at all”. Given the love she has for comedy and the love the comedy world has for her…
THAT isn’t true at all!